From Automation Chaos to Service Excellence: Why Orchestration Must Run as a Service

By Prakash Palani

The $10 Million Automation Paradox

Automation has long been positioned as the lever to modernize enterprises. In boardrooms, it is often envisioned as cloud operations running seamlessly, SAP systems refreshing instantly, and finance processes closing without manual intervention.

The promise is clear. Yet, many programs struggle to scale beyond 5–10 use cases. The outcome is not transformation but the creation of “automation islands” — isolated wins surrounded by large areas of manual effort.

This is particularly concerning when downtime costs are so high. Studies indicate that 93% of enterprises report an hour of downtime costs over $300,000, with nearly half experiencing losses exceeding $1M. The technology is rarely the issue; the challenge lies in how automation is structured. Most programs are executed as fragmented projects, not as an enterprise-wide service.

The Common Barriers to Scaling Automation

Patterns of failure recur across industries:
1. Territorial silos — each function (cloud, database, SAP, security) protects its own domain.
2. Fragmented resources — expertise spread too thin, with no unifying bridge.
3. Lack of strategy — “automate more” replaces a coherent roadmap.
4. Vendor lock-in — partners slow orchestration to maintain control.
5. Inconsistent measurement — no end-to-end visibility of outcomes.
6. Scarce expertise — true cross-platform orchestration skills remain rare.
7. Limited executive sponsorship — initial enthusiasm wanes without sustained leadership attention.

Two Contrasting Outcomes

Real-world experiences highlight the difference leadership makes:

Case A: Orchestration applied narrowly within SAP refreshes delivered measurable improvements. However, when the scope expanded to other domains, organizational boundaries prevented further progress.

Case B: A CTO positioned orchestration as a horizontal service line, spanning Salesforce, SAP, cloud, and infrastructure. By aligning under unified leadership, barriers dissolved, and orchestration scaled across the enterprise.

The technology was the same in both cases. The leadership model defined the outcome.

From Islands to Highways

Automation islands provide local success but lack enterprise impact. By contrast, orchestration-as-a-service creates “highways” that connect processes, systems, and teams.

For orchestration to function this way, organizations need:

A single accountable leader with authority across technology domains.

Clear mandate and governance from the CTO or enterprise architecture office.

A framework that enables scale rather than isolated wins.

A Structured Path to Service Excellence

Enterprises that succeed in orchestration-as-a-service typically progress through three stages:
1. Consolidation – Audit scattered automation efforts, reduce redundancy, and appoint ownership.
2. Distribution – Establish shared standards while enabling departments to build within a unified framework.
3. Service Excellence – Transition from reactive fixes to proactive orchestration, with self-service platforms and continuous improvement.

Tangible Enterprise Impact

When orchestration is structured as a service, reported benefits include:

Over 90% reduction in error rates on repetitive processes.

20–30% cost savings across complex workflows.

20–40% improvement in customer satisfaction from greater reliability.

10–15% productivity uplift across business units.

The real advantage is compounding value: each orchestration reinforces the next, transforming isolated efficiencies into exponential impact.

The Leadership Question

The critical question for technology leaders is not “What use case should be automated next?” but rather “Who owns orchestration as a service?”

Tools alone do not scale orchestration. Leadership, structure, and governance do.

Automation without orchestration results in islands. Orchestration-as-a-service builds the highways that enable enterprises to move with speed, resilience, and scale.